The onetime owner of a rooftop club overlooking Wrigley Field was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Monday for hiding more than $1 million in revenue to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties owed to the Cubs as well as state and local taxes.

R. Marc Hamid, 48, was convicted by a jury in July of nine counts of mail fraud and illegal bank structuring for falsifying attendance records at the Skybox on Sheffield, a rooftop club beyond the right field wall.

In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said that as a lawyer and successful businessman, Hamid "had no reason to go out and commit these crimes."

But Durkin's sentence was well below the recommendations of prosecutors, who at one point had advocated up to about eight years behind bars. The judge said the amount of money involved paled in comparison to most fraud schemes charged in federal court and noted it was likely the Cubs' "celebrity" as a victim "made this investigation so dogged."

Before he was sentenced, Hamid, dressed in a dark suit and glasses, sobbed as he apologized to the Cubs as well as for the "collateral damage" he caused his family and friends. He described Wrigley Field as a "very special place" and partnering with the team as a dream opportunity that he squandered when he fell into financial difficulty.

"I betrayed the Cubs and that opportunity by defrauding them," said Hamid, pausing to dab at his eyes with a tissue. "The day-to-day pressures blinded me to the reality of what I was doing."

Hamid was found guilty of under-reporting attendance and revenue at Skybox on Sheffield from 2008 to 2011 through a variety of schemes, including "zeroing out" invoices and charging customers through one of his ticket brokerages, Just Great Seats and Just Great Tickets, instead of the rooftop business itself. The phony numbers meant the Cubs did not get as much in royalty payments as the 17 percent of gross annual revenues called for under terms of the rooftop owners' agreement with the team.

John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune

A city of Chicago public notice is posted March 27, 2015, at the entrance to a residential building that houses the Skybox on Sheffield rooftop club behind Wrigley Field.

A city of Chicago public notice is posted March 27, 2015, at the entrance to a residential building that houses the Skybox on Sheffield rooftop club behind Wrigley Field.

(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

According to prosecutors, Hamid then submitted false sales tax returns to the state of Illinois and amusement tax returns to Cook County and the city of Chicago for those years, failing to report about $1.5 million in sales. Hamid allegedly used some of the unreported money for personal and business expenses, including payments on luxury cars.

Hamid's nine-day trial included the testimony of Skybox on Sheffield manager Richard Zasiebida, a former Oak Park cop who admitted on the witness stand that he pocketed cash at the door from fans who wanted a seat at the venue. The company's accountant, Joseph Gurdak, admitted he helped Hamid hide the funds from the team. Both Zasiebida and Gurdak have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors also presented evidence of the bad blood between the Cubs and rooftop owners, a tense situation that had escalated after the Ricketts family bought the team in 2009.

In one email, when asked whether the latest revenue estimates should be sent to Cubs business President Crane Kenney or some other team executive, Hamid wrote back, "Just write to (the) resident (expletive) and they can figure it out."

In arguing for probation, Hamid's lawyer, Chris Gair, told the judge Monday that Hamid at his core was a "selfless, generous person" who failed to confront his financial problems honestly.

"He chose to cheat and revealed himself to be a flawed human being," Gair said. "... But nobody is better off by Marc Hamid going to prison for this crime."

Hamid was ordered to report to prison by July 30. The judge also ordered that he pay $392,000 in restitution to his victims.

Opened in 1993 and renovated six years ago, Skybox on Sheffield once touted gorgeous sightlines from just inside the right field foul pole to home plate. The owners sued in 2015 over the Cubs' plan to erect a 2,250-square-foot right field video board and other signs that would block the views, but a federal judge refused to order a halt to construction.

With no view of the infield, Skybox's website now entices fans with its proximity to the "energy of the area" around Wrigley.